Complaint brings end to Scout troop for juvenile offenders at Vernon Hills center

The Southtown Daily Herald (Suburban Chicago) ^ | 3/8/03 | Mick Zawislak

[RonF]

Lake County is a county northwest of Chicago containing numerous Chicago suburbs. Overall the county is wealthier than many. Their Board of Commissioners decided to not renew a charter for a BSA Troop that was concentrating on rehabilitating youthful offenders because Rob Sherman threatened to bring a lawsuit.

Rob did this previously in the Chicago area. If I'm not mistaken, he tried to force a southwest suburban Cub Scout Pack that was sponsored by a public school to accept his son as a member after crossing out the part of the application that mentions God. The Cub Scout Promise includes a promise to do one's duty to God. Upon being rejected, he brought suit on the basis that the BSA was a public accomodation and that his son was harmed by being excluded from an activity that included his son's friends.

He lost. But the school did the same thing that the Lake County Commissioners did, and after knocking around a few years more the Pack died.

I faced the same thing. My Scout Troop was informed by it's sponsor, a Park District (which in Illinois is a municipal body), that the Park District would not renew it's charter because they were afraid that they'd get sued. Fortunately for us, both the Pack and the Troop were approached by a local Episcopal parish. They picked up our charter and we've been going strong ever since.

People on FR tend to talk bad about the Episcopal church, but this parish stood up and did the right thing, and continues to do so.

[RonF]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Mister Baredog]

"We're going to create programming and opportunities for these kids that will be even better."

Tragic. The ACLU is currently defending LAMBA(men and boy love association). Perhaps they can recommend them to take over guiding these young people. I'm sure LAMBA doen't discriminate aren't you?

[Kuksool]

The ACLU is a gang of legalistic terrorists. These ACLU Nazis want to make public lands or any public services off limits to the Boy Scouts just because they don't like the values of the Scouts. The ACLU is truly the enemy of America.

[patriciaruth]

"We're going to create programming and opportunities for these kids that will be even better."

Something better than, "On my honorI will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." ...?"

Something better than TRUSTWORTHY, LOYAL, HELPFUL, FRIENDLY. COURTEOUS. KIND. OBEDIENT. CHEERFUL. THRIFTY. BRAVE. CLEAN. REVERENT.

Wanna bet?

[RonF]

bump

[Jeff Chandler]

How about gentle, accepting, inclusive, collective, diverse, peaceful, open-minded, multicultural, socially just, global, creative, flambouyant, flaming, and perverse?

[patriciaruth]

How about slavery?

[RonF]

Remember that the ACLU doesn't bring lawsuits. They assist people who do. The ACLU would never have been involved if Rob Sherman hadn't first raised the issue and called them up. This lays at his doorstep, not the ACLU's.

The sad part is that Sherman would likely have won any suit. The courts would take the view that government funding of an organization that requires one to have a religious belief would violate the principle of the First Amendment's religous establishment clause.

Fortunately, that doesn't hold true for the other point of your post, the use of public lands. There's no way that the BSA will be restricted from the use of public facilities. If any such suit starts to make serious progress in the courts, Congress will pass a law similar to the amendment to the No Child Left Behind education bill that required all public schools to grant BSA equal access to their facilities.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

This guy Rob Sherman is at or near the top of my list of "People That Need Expurgating".

Only my Christian upbringing keeps me from actively seeking to remove people from this list....one by one.

[gcruse]

Thanks for the heads up.  I find it laughable that so many Christians on this board think their religion is being discriminated against every day in our culture, yet have nothing negative to say about an organization that discriminates against atheist kids because of their beliefs.

[Michael.SF.]

The ACLU is currently defending LAMBA(men and boy love association).

Actually, it is: NAMBLA - North American Man-Boy Love Assoc.

Which is not to be confused with NAMBLA: Nat'l assoc. of Marlon Brando look alikes.

you gotta love South Park.

[Mister Baredog]

Thanks for the correction, I'm not on their mailing list

[aimhigh]

Remember that the ACLU doesn't bring lawsuits. They assist people who do. The ACLU would never have been involved if Rob Sherman hadn't first raised the issue and called them up. This lays at his doorstep, not the ACLU's.

What a load of crap. The ACLU hunts for stuff like this. They have a choice what they want to litigate.

[Liberal Bob]

So if a bunch of us old farts want to join the tax supported N.O.W. is the ACLU going to jump in because this discriminatory organization don’t like old white guys?

[Free the USA]

bump

[RonF]

What a load of crap. The ACLU hunts for stuff like this. They have a choice what they want to litigate.

The fact that the ACLU has a choice of what they want to get involved in doesn't mean they initiated this. Rob Sherman has a long history of this kind of thing and I have little doubt that he came to the ACLU, not the other way around. Rob's even got his own cable show here.

[stands2reason]

I hear churches discriminate against atheists as well.

[gcruse]

Do they? I have never heard of a church refusing to allow an atheist to attend services. Maybe I don't get around enough, though. Discrimination for me but not for thee does sound familiar.

[RAT Patrol]

So are government schools obligated to hire ex-cons or be accused of discrimination? Must they hire all people regardless of their behavior "orientations?"

Maybe local fire departments shouldn't discriminate against piromanics. Maybe the police department shouldn't discriminate against the mentally ill or just the ill-tempered. Perhaps we should remove public funds from PBS for discriminating against the mute as program moderators. No funds for music programs that discriminate against the tone deaf. And all public transportation organizations should hire the blind and the disabled to drive their vehicles or face charges of discrimination.